TAMPICO TO COSTA ESMERALDA

Costa Esmeralda (the Emerald Coast) is well named because of its tropical emerald waters, vivid green landscapes full of coconut trees, royal palms, orange trees and banana trees. This is not yet the area of beautiful subtropical Caribbean white coral beaches, but it is a great start. However, to get there we had to got through a steeplechase of tough driving for many hours.

We were ready at 6:00 AM. So far these are the worst roads we have found in Mexico. The potholes are real craters. I would say that they pose a greater danger to the suspension of our 5th wheel than the infamous TOPES (speed bumps) found at the entrance and exit of each small town and at schools and pedestrian crossing sections of the highway.

Today we came across two wrecks. This one was a rear-ender at a tope. The other was caused by reckless driving by someone in a pickup truck. We have witnessed much passing over double yellow lines as we approach a hilltop where you cannot see who is coming. One time a large semi began to pass us in a no-passing zone and he had to put his exhaust brake and began pushing us to the shoulder while ducking oncoming traffic.
At the river, the scene was reminiscent of some pictures of the river villages in Vietnam or China.
As we approach our campground we begin to notice a definite shift to more tropical vegetation and deep green landscapes. This is definitely the more beautiful Mexico so far.
Beautiful countryside.
Oranges and bananas everywhere. We stopped to buy oranges and they were selling them cheap. They were small but very sweet. The Aztec looking saleswoman told us they were Cuban, but I guess she meant from Cuban seed-stock.A banana plantation.